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Monday, November 14, 2005

The blurred lines of "learning", "education", "training", "information sharing" and "knowledge management" really puzzle me. Throughout my corporate life, the training and information I received at seminars and workshops was created and delivered almost exclusively by subject matter experts. As I developed in my field, I become one of those SMEs. As technology improved, I had better tools to transmit information out to employees in remote locations (corporate intranet portals, Lotus Notes bulletin boards, Web meetings) - but should that process of SMEs sharing information be referred to as "learning" or "education"?

It would be very easy to say "no", as steps in the typical educational approach are not present (i.e. assessment and evaluation). However, in most cases, this just-in-time information from SMEs is how employees "learn" about new developments in their field and the tools used in their job. The linked article struck a chord with me as it commingles the concepts of learning and information sharing referring to it as a "new paradigm in e-learning". Is what they describe in the article really "new" and is it really "learning"? I can probably argue both sides . . .

1 comment:

I agree that this isn't really "new"... what I'd like to see more of goes one step further... moving away from the concept of content-driven "courses" for this type of learning and more towards informal, community-based approaches... hmmm, I'll have to blog about this when I get 5 free minutes....